- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 18 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many residential properties there are in the private rented sector, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Scottish Government estimates that there are around 250,400 occupied residential properties in the private rented sector and this equates to just over 10% of occupied dwellings in Scotland. A breakdown of this figure by local authority area is shown in the following table.
Estimated Occupied Properties in the Private Rented Sector 2009, by Local Authority area
| Local Authority | Properties (,000s) |
| Aberdeen City | 15.8 |
| Aberdeenshire | 9.3 |
| Angus | 5.5 |
| Argyll and Bute | 4.2 |
| Clackmannanshire | 1.7 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 7.7 |
| Dundee City | 12.5 |
| East Ayrshire | 4.5 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 2.1 |
| East Lothian | 4.3 |
| East Renfrewshire | 1.7 |
| Edinburgh, City of | 44.1 |
| Eilean Siar | 0.5 |
| Falkirk | 4.5 |
| Fife | 15.3 |
| Glasgow City | 33.8 |
| Highland | 9.2 |
| Inverclyde | 2.9 |
| Midlothian | 2.1 |
| Moray | 3.6 |
| North Ayrshire | 4.5 |
| North Lanarkshire | 7.5 |
| Orkney Islands | 1.1 |
| Perth and Kinross | 9.5 |
| Renfrewshire | 6.2 |
| Scottish Borders, The | 7.6 |
| Shetland Islands | 0.4 |
| South Ayrshire | 4.4 |
| South Lanarkshire | 12.0 |
| Stirling | 4.5 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 1.9 |
| West Lothian | 5.5 |
| Scotland | 250.4 |
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 17 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive with what flood prevention schemes it is assisting the City of Edinburgh Council, broken down by (a) financial costs and (b) location.
Answer
Funding for flood risk management is no longer ring-fenced to specific schemes but is included within the overall level of capital support provided to local government. This provides local authorities with the flexibility to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.
In 2007, the City of Edinburgh Council had two confirmed flood prevention schemes, the Braid Burn and the Water of Leith. The Braid Burn scheme had been awarded a grant at 80% of the estimated cost of £28,506,520.09 in quarterly instalments to the end of 2011-12. The relevant amounts are translated into the general capital grant as part of the capital support over the period 2008-2011.
The Water of Leith Scheme had been awarded a grant towards costs of £5.5m up to March 2008. So the general capital grant took account of the remaining estimated costs, £40.35m, spread over 6 years. In addition, in 2010-11 the level of capital support took into account the level of flood risk in the Council''s area.
It is however for the City of Edinburgh Council to allocate resources for flood risk management from the overall resources available to it.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 16 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Supported Employment Workplaces debate on 7 October 2010 (Official Report c. 29383), whether it has convened a meeting with the City of Edinburgh Council and other interested parties regarding the proposed closure of Blindcraft in Edinburgh.
Answer
Yes. As undertaken during the debate on 7 October 2010, I offered to facilitate a meeting on the future of BlindCraft. The council accepted my offer and the meeting took place on 9 November 2010 at Edinburgh City Chambers.
A list of those who attended the meeting has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre under Bib. number 52029 along with a copy of the meeting notification issued on 3 November 2010, Bib number 52030.
In addition, the Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning replied to a letter from Helen Eadie MSP on Blindcraft on 3 November 2010.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 16 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Supported Employment Workplaces debate on 7 October 2010 (Official Report c. 29383), whether it has invited all interested parties, including the City of Edinburgh Council, MSPs and MPs, to meet to discuss the future of Blindcraft in Edinburgh and, if so, on what date the invitations were issued.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-37279 on 16 November 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 04 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 16 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the Supported Employment Workplaces debate on 7 October 2010 (Official Report c. 29383), whether it will provide details of correspondence between it, the City of Edinburgh Council and MSPs regarding the proposed closure of Blindcraft in Edinburgh.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-37279 on 16 November 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 11 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide further details of what local heat mapping and feasibility projects it has supported, as indicated in Action 6.2 of the Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Scotland.
Answer
Scottish Government is funding a heat mapping pilot in the Highland Council area and it is our intention to disseminate the results to other local authorities. We are supporting Sustainable Glasgow through the Central Energy Efficiency Fund and we also fund the Energy Saving Trust work programme for Scotland, which includes their recently published Scottish Planner Support Pack Sustainable Energy in the Built Environment: Best Practice for Scottish Planners. This provides supportive information to planning authorities on heat mapping.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 01 November 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 11 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive on what date it will appoint a dedicated officer to develop district heating as a discrete policy area, as indicated in Action 6.2 of the Energy Efficiency Action Plan for Scotland.
Answer
We recently appointed a dedicated officer who will take forward district heating policy and will co-ordinate activity across Scottish Government. The post commenced in August 2010.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 9 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on using planning regulations to require supermarkets to source locally a proportion of their goods.
Answer
There is currently no provision in primary legislation that would permit the making of such regulations.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 8 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to introduce community energy plans to allow local communities to identify their own local renewable energy needs.
Answer
Through a concerted drive to maximise community benefits from renewables and increase local ownership of energy, we already help communities to identify their own local renewable energy needs, and to realise their ambitions.
Our Climate Challenge Fund is about helping communities identify how much they can reduce their own carbon footprint, including identifying local renewable energy needs. It has funded 203 projects which include energy efficiency or renewables options in communities.
We have provided some £13.5 million over the last two years to fund our Community and Renewable Energy scheme which provides grants and free bespoke independent advice for communities to take forward their own energy projects. 600 projects are set to benefit by March 2011.
We are currently considering future funding options for community renewables, including the scope for a loan fund to de-risk the pre-planning costs of local renewable energy projects.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 4 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what it is doing to (a) promote and (b) support farmers’ co-operatives.
Answer
The Scottish Government works closely with the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society to promote and support co-operatives. We have also supported five co-operation projects totalling £1.5 million under the Scottish Rural Development Programme Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation grant scheme.
